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Out-of-date property-tax rolls feed tax unfairness

Places like New Castle, where the assessment rolls were set decades ago, feed tax unfairness for property owners. Because the town's data don't reflect current property values, it's almost assured that some residents pay more than they should and some pay less.

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Out-of-date property-tax rolls feed tax unfairness

A Journal News editorial
10 p.m. EDT May 10, 2014

Places like New Castle, where the assessment rolls were set decades ago, feed tax unfairness for property owners. Because the town's data don't reflect current property values, it's almost assured that some residents pay more than they should and some pay less.

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Outside the New Castle home of Sandra Lee and Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Lee calls her home Lily Pond.(Photo: David McKay Wilson/The Journal News)Buy Photo

The longer a community goes without a general reassessment of property, the more inequality or tax unfairness creeps into the tax rolls.

That's one takeaway from Sunday's Tax Watch report, which examined how two famous New Castle couples – the Clintons and Sandra Lee and Gov. Andrew Cuomo – undertook home renovations and how it impacted their property-tax bills.

In the case of former President Bill Clinton and former first lady-Senator-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, their tax bill increased, as the town could add value to the property based on building permits obtained for the work. Lee, though, didn't obtain permits; her property-tax bill has dipped in recent years. (The governor's office, which responded to queries made to Lee, insists building permits weren't necessary for the kind of cosmetic work done; media reports, though, detail renovations that would require such town-issued permits.)

Towns can alter property assessment based on certain home improvements. Property owners also can challenge their tax bills. But the big picture is lost in places like New Castle, where the assessment rolls were set decades ago. Because the town's tax rolls don't reflect current property values, it's almost assured that some residents pay more than they should and some pay less.

So why not fix it? Because revaluation is hard.

Some states, like Connecticut and Massachusetts, perform frequent statewide property revaluations. In New York, municipalities decide when to review property assessments, and some wait decades to do so. The process is complex, costly and bound to make some homeowners mad.

Yonkers and Greenburgh are finally performing revaluations for their tax rolls, which date to the 1950s. Ossining also is updating its property data, last reassessed in the 1970s. Other towns such as Scarsdale and Pelham have taken the plunge, and several of Putnam County's towns perform frequent revaluations to keep their tax rolls fresh.

The revaluation process – usually performed by an outside vendor – is labor intensive, with assessors visiting as many properties as possible. But municipalities have a better chance to fend off a property-tax challenge if the assessment rolls are up-to-date.

Though a full property revaluation can solve some problems, it can create others, especially when overlapping jurisdictions don't take on the task at the same time. Haverstraw undertook a townwide revaluation in 2006, but Stony Point kept using its circa-1984 assessment data; the uneven property measures further complicated an already complex school-tax calculation process for the North Rockland school district.

That's why a countywide process would benefit property owners most. But that's even more difficult to pull off. Republican Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino has shown no appetite for that (though he reports scrupulous adherence to building-permit rules for his own home). Rockland attempted a countywide revaluation process in the early 1990s, but not all towns could agree on the process.

The Clintons' and Lee's fluctuating property-tax bills in New Castle demonstrate the need to reset assessment rolls.

And there's another takeaway from the Tax Watch report: If your house renovation plans include more than a can of paint and some new blinds, check with your town to see whether you need a building permit – especially if your partner is a public official.